With every passing year, it becomes easier to not know how to do anything. You could live your whole life not learning basic life skills thanks to the economy of convenience our society has been perfecting since the dawn of time. That's not to say that having specialization is a bad thing; far from it, but it gives us the unique opportunity/excuse to rely on others to no end.

Just last week I was preparing to ride in the Fremont Solstice Cyclists Ride (the naked bike ride that occurs right before the official parade) and was faced with a dilemma. I had not touched my bike since Burning Man and it needed some intense love before it would be operational again. The chain and gears were rusty, the shifting was all out of alignment, and the brakes were loose as could be. I had been putting off bringing my bike into a bike shop for weeks. I couldn't find the time to ride it the couple miles to the shop to get worked on.

Eventually, it was the day before the ride and I knew I wasn't going to get the bike to the shop in time. I needed to take matters into my own hands. Since I had built the bike from a kit I got on Amazon (here's a link to the beauty), I had a basic understanding of what went where, but not much more. So I got on the trusty YouTube and watched a few bike maintenance videos. A few hours later, I had a clean bike that shifted (almost) perfectly and brakes that actually braked. It gave me a sense of accomplishment I obviously wouldn't have had taking the bike into a shop.

As I sat there with my hands covered with dirt and grease, I thought about the implications of my decision to get hands-on. With just a couple hours of watching videos and tinkering with my bike, I had learned the basic skills of bike maintenance. Not only did it save me the money of bringing it into a shop, it saved me that money from future repairs. From now on, with a couple simple tools I can adjust my, and others', bikes when the need arises. This could save some serious headache if end up somewhere that doesn't necessarily have bike shops every couple miles. Not to mention keeping bikes in working condition at Burning Man!

It doesn't stop there, though; skill acquisition should be a lifelong pursuit. Every time we take the time to learn a new skill, we increase our self value forever. As these skills build over time, they start to overlap more and more, strengthening each other. And as you already know, having an arsenal of skills at the ready is great for any career.

So what skill are you going to learn next? There are the more practical ones like bike maintenance, knot tying, or sewing, and the more jovial ones like juggling, speaking pig latin, or unicycling.